counterbattery fire
- noun
- Specialized
:
fuego de contrabatería
- The commander ordered a counterbattery fire to silence the enemy's guns.
Examples
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The army responded quickly with counterbattery fire to suppress the enemy's artillery positions.
-
Launch a counterbattery fire now!
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Accurate counterbattery fire can significantly reduce enemy bombardment in a conflict.
-
They relied on radar systems to coordinate counterbattery fire during the battle.
-
The commander called for counterbattery fire to neutralize the enemy's artillery positions.
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During the battle, our troops relied on counterbattery fire to effectively silence the opposing cannons.
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The rapid counterbattery fire from our forces turned the tide by destroying the enemy artillery crew.
Synonyms
Fire from guns aimed at enemy heavy guns to stop them
An attack using heavy guns to destroy the enemy's weapons
Gunfire aimed to destroy enemy weapons or positions
Antonyms
How Forceful
849
3.0
47
7.0
51
8.3
- Specialized
- Specialized
1
7.8
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'counterbattery' denotes actions or measures against enemy artillery and 'fire' denotes the shooting/firing of guns, so together they straightforwardly mean artillery fire aimed at enemy batteries. Although technical/military, the parts map transparently and follow normal English compounding, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the meaning.
Etymology
Counterbattery fire comes from the battlefield image of a battery — a group of guns — firing back, with counter meaning 'against', at the enemy's guns. So counterbattery fire means 'fire aimed at the enemy's guns' to silence them and stop their attacks.